Training Moms to Teach Their Kids About Abstinence, Sexuality, and Pornography

“Over Confidence is the Most Dangerous Form of Carelessness.”

I graduated from high school in 1989 without a cell phone. In fact, CD’s had only been around a about 7 years. During my collegiate years, the answering machine evolved as well as the Internet or World Wide Web. Most of my professors were against using the Internet as a source for any research papers. I started teaching in 1994-1995, which apparently was a banner year for technology because the cell phone became popular, email, Yahoo ,PlayStation and DVD’s all had a market….and hand sanitizer became popular too! Google and computer animation developed in 1998 and introduced us to Toy Story, Bug’s Life, Shrek, Monsters Inc, Shrek, and finally Frozen. Since my children have been born in 2004, 2007, I Phones, Wii, and Xbox have evolved. We live in a fast-paced every changing world!

It took 55 years for the telephone to have 50 million users. It took the Internet 4 years to have 50 million users. In 35 days, Angry Birds had 50 million users. (techworm.net) One pornography site transfers 4,000 pages a second! (Barna) The average American kid will view 14,000 sexual references each year….only a 165 will deal with abstinence, self-control, STD’s, pregnancy (American Academy of Pediatrics). The world is NOT the same place that your were raised in. So as the media world spins out of control around you, what conversations have you had with your kids about abstinence, self-control, STD’s, pregnancy? If they are little, use every opportunity to teach self control, especially with boys. I had a conversation with a mom recently and she told me that her 8 year old son likes to play with his “goodies”. She told him it was fine as long as he did it in his room and not in public. I think she missed the boat. What a great opportunity to have a conversation about self control and why we don’t play with our own genitals in public or private. Once the dopamine rush hits from the genital stimulation, we can condition our genitals to only respond to our hands. This is Not God’s design for our bodies. We need to exercise self control with our bodies. We exercise self control with candy, soda, junk food, and hopefully media use, just like we exercise self control with our bodies. Combine self-gratification and pornography and you have the perfect storm for addiction, erectile dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction. Don’t be over-confident in your parenting…don’t assume that your kids are doing what they should be in the privacy of their rooms. Keep an open door policy when they have a device in their rooms. Then visit the room often to hold them accountable. Most of us who are parenting today didn’t have access to the media that our kids have today. Therefore, we better be talking to them about what they are being exposed to, especially in the arena of sexuality. In addition, TV’s in kids’ rooms can cause sleep issues, freedom issues, and exposure to content that their brains just are not ready to process or handle. Wise old YODA from Star Wars says, “Over confidence is the most dangerous form of carelessness.”

TIP: Keep your kids bedroom doors open more than closed. Be a careful, watchful parent. Have a conversation with your son about his goodies and not touching or playing with them and WHY.